faux bokeh tutorial

8/2/2019 Faux Bokeh Tutorial

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First off, sorry to those of you that are on the mailing list or RSS that get this twice. Imfinally moved over to a dedicated server, and in doing so, this post was lost. So, Im re-publishing it.

This tutorial will walk you through how to create a faux bokeh background in Photoshop.For those of you that are unsure about what bokeh is, it is a Japanese term used inphotography. It is used to describe the qualities of the area of a photo that is out of focus,and is used to help draw your eye to the subject of the photograph. Some pretty cool thingshappen with bokeh, too. Especially where lights or heavily lighted areas are concerned.

Have you ever looked at a photograph or been watching a movie, perhaps where it was darkout, and the lights in the background are all blurry, but instead of just being blurry theyappear as these odd gatherings of circles and/or polygons? I didnt notice it all that oftenuntil I started looking, and now I see it everywhere!

Youll need to grab my Bokeh Photoshop & GIMP Brushes to follow along with this tutorial.This tutorial is specifically geared toward Photoshop users. If youre a Photoshop Elementsor GIMP user, you should still be able to follow along, though the steps may not be exact foryou.

Lets get started!
http://www.obsidiandawn.com/bokeh-photoshop-gimp-brusheshttp://www.obsidiandawn.com/bokeh-photoshop-gimp-brushes


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The horse image used for this tutorial comes from Capgros at the Stock Exchange. The restare mine.

1. First, find the photo youll be using to follow along. Now, take a good look at that photo.What it looks like will determine which part of this tutorial you will follow.

If your photo is made up of all foreground and background, like the photo on the left below,then follow steps 2-13. If your photo has your subject completely surrounded by thebackground of the photo, like the one on the right below, follow steps 2-11, then jumpahead to the alternate steps 14-17. I will tell you when to skip ahead in the course of thetutorial, so just go get it in your mind whether or not you need to use the alternate steps orthe regular steps, and get started.
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1178082http://www.sxc.hu/profile/Capgroshttp://www.sxc.hu/http://www.obsidiandawn.com/creating-faux-bokeh-backgrounds-in-photoshop-tutorial#althttp://www.obsidiandawn.com/creating-faux-bokeh-backgrounds-in-photoshop-tutorial#althttp://www.sxc.hu/photo/1178082http://www.sxc.hu/profile/Capgroshttp://www.sxc.hu/http://www.obsidiandawn.com/creating-faux-bokeh-backgrounds-in-photoshop-tutorial#althttp://www.obsidiandawn.com/creating-faux-bokeh-backgrounds-in-photoshop-tutorial#alt


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2. Heres our before picture. It looks like a regular photo, with the horse in theforeground and the leaves, etc. behind it. The horse is already fairly prominent in thisexample, whereas there will be other photos that are in need of the bokeh effect muchmore than this one is. However, it will still illustrate the point.

3. The first step is going to be to isolate the foreground from the background, so that wecan blur the background only.

Open up your Layers window (if its not open, chooseWindow > Layers to open it). Right click on thebackground layer and choose Duplicate Layer. If itgives you a chance to, type Foreground for the layername. You should now have a layer just above the

Background. If you didnt rename it to Foregroundbefore, right click on that top Background copy layerand choose Layer Properties to rename it. UnderName, type Foreground and hit OK. Your layerswindow should now look something like this:


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4. In this next part, were going to basically remove the background from the Foregroundlayer, but were going to do it using a layer mask. Those of you not familiar with how LayerMasks work, heres your chance to learn!

Click on the Foreground layer. Now, near the bottom of theLayers window, find Add a Layer Mask and click on it. It

should create something that looks like this:

5. Now click on the Background layer. Im going to have youmake a bright blue temporary layer between these two, to helpmake it easier to cut out the foreground part of the image.Click on the Create a New Layer button near the bottom rightof the layers window (or CTRL-SHIFT-N(PC) / CMD-SHIFT-N(Mac)).Choose a bright blue color for your foreground color by clicking

on it and choosing the color from the palette. Then select thepaint bucket tool (G or right click on the Gradient Tool toswitch from it to the Paint Bucket), and click once on the canvasanywhere. You wont see any change yet, because its stillhidden by the Foreground layer. For now.

6. Click back on your Foreground layer, but click specifically on the white square (themask) part of it. Now click on the image part of the layer, just to the left of it. See how ithighlights whichever part of the layer is currently active? Thats how you know whetheryoure editing the photo part of that layer, or the mask part of that layer.

This next part is, by far, the most time consuming part of this tutorial. But, any of youphoto manipulators out there already know how very un-fun it can be to removebackgrounds. There arent many tips that I can give you on how to get it just right. Its amatter of practice, and patience. There are some programs out there that will help you,and so if you have them, by all means use them.

Let me explain to you how layer masks work, for those of you that havent used thembefore. Any black on the layer mask will make the corresponding part of the image show upas transparent. Lets try something, just so you see what I mean. Make black yourforeground color, and then select the mask part of the Foreground layer by clicking on it.Take a brush, any brush, and paint a stroke of black across the canvas. As youll see,wherever that black shows up, the blue background is now showing through. CTRL-ALT-Z toundo (CMD-OPTION-Z on Mac).

Click once on the photo thumbnail on the Foreground layer to make sure its selected. Younow have a few options. If you have a tablet and/or a steady hand, you can use black topaint out the background by hand, using black on the mask to cover the entirebackground portion. Probably the easiest way to do this, though, is to use the magic wandtool.

Select the magic wand tool (W or right click on the direct selection tool to switch tomagic wand). If your background is mainly made up of one color, you can try moving the


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tolerance (located on the top bar, just under the main menu) up to about 75% or so. If itsnot, Id suggest keeping it in the 30-50% range. Use it to click on various portions of thebackground, making sure that you ONLY get background. Hold SHIFT, and select the nextpart of the background. Keep going like this, until you get a decent chunk of yourbackground selected, then click once on the mask part of the Foreground layer. Using thepaint bucket tool and with black as your selected color, click once within that selection to

fill it with black. Keep doing this, switching back to the photo part of the Foreground layerto make your selections, then back to the mask part of the layer to fill them in with black.As you use the paint bucket to fill the selections in with black on the mask, the blue layershould start showing through, replacing the background of the photo.

Heres what mine looks like. Notice that Ive made a mistake, and ended up taking a part ofthe horses eye along with the background on accident. Fear not! Thats the great thingabout using masks, rather than simply deleting the background. You delete it, and its gone.You use a mask, and its as easy as taking some white and brushing over the eye area to fixit!


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7. Most of our background is gone, leaving those ugly chunky parts behind. Well, thats easyenough to fix. This is the point where I usually grab a decent sized brush and go in there onthe mask part of the layer, painting black over all those small spots to remove thementirely. Use a smaller brush to help clean up the edges of the foreground, remembering touse white to make a part visible, and black to make it transparent.

Tip: If you need to see what youre supposed to be painting, click on the small eye to the

left of the blue layer to hide that layer and see whats beneath it, then click on the eyeagain to make it visible once more. You can even paint with it hidden if that makes iteasier for you in some parts. When youre done, you should have something that looks likethis (Im also including a screenshot of my layers window, just so you can see my mask):

8. Now its time to go in there and remove that ugly blue background. Right click on thatblue layer and choose Delete Layer or click on the trashcan on the bottom right of thelayers window to delete it.


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9. Click on your Foreground layer to be sure its active.Open the Channels window by choosing Window >Channels. At the very bottom, there should be aForeground Mask layer. Click on the small box to the leftof that layer to make it visible (where the eye would be,if there were one showing), then click on the layer to

make it active.

Choose Select > Color Range from the main menu. Awindow will pop up, and your mouse will turn into aneyedropper. Click within the black area of the mask (thebackground of the photo). Set the Fuzziness slider toaround 80 or so, somewhere in the middle. Hit OK. Thebackground of the photo should now be selected.

Click on the small eye to the left of the Foreground Mask layer in the Channels palette tohide it once again, and then switch back over to your Layers Window. (If your Photoshop is

still set up to the default configuration, they will be in the same window together, withtabs up at the top. You can just click on Layers there, or choose Windows > Layers, or hitF7.)

10. Click on the Background layer.

CTRL-C (CMD-C on Mac) to copy. CTRL-V (CMD-V on Mac) to paste. Youve just made a newlayer with JUST the background on it. Right click on that layer and choose Layer Properties,then name it Background2. Were going to blur this layer to take it out of focus.

Why do we make this new, Background2 layer? Because if you were to blur the Background

layer, you would also be blurring the subject. Granted, its hidden behind the top layer,which also contains the subject. But with my example, since the horse is white, when Iblurred the Background layer, I would get this odd, white halo effect around the horsebecause of the horse being blurred into the background. We dont want this.

Blurring can do some odd things around the edges of the blur, if theres nothing there toblur into so were going to need to extend the edges of the background, too.

11. Click on the small eye on the left side of the Foreground layer in the layers palette tomake it invisible for now. Then click on the Background2 layer to make sure it is selected.Select the Smudge Tool (R or right click on the Blur Tool/Sharpen Tool to select theSmudge Tool from the 3 choices). Select a medium sized round brush, and put the Strength(up on the top bar, under the main menu) on about 65%. Now go along the edges of theBackground2 layer, smudging the edges of it inward.


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Yes, its going to look a little funny for now. But dont worry, itll be blurred beyondrecognition in a few moments.

*** If your photo has the subject surrounded by background and you need to use thealternate steps (see step 1 for an explanation), skip ahead to step 14 now!! Otherwise,continue on to step 12.***

12. Click on the small eye next to the Foreground layer once again, to un-hide it. Make sureyour Background2 layer is still selected if it isnt, click on it! Choose Filter > Blur >Gaussian Blur from the top menu. What radius you select here is really up to personal

preference (and the size of your canvas). You can move the slider up and down and see theeffects that it has on your canvas. I would suggest choosing a decently high radius, so thatthe background becomes fairly indistinct.


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13. Now load up the Bokeh Brushes. Use the Eyedropper Tool (I or right click on theColor Sampler or Ruler Tools and choose Eyedropper from the 3 choices) to pick up one ofthe very lightest colors from your background. Any color of your choosing. You may evenwant to do a few different colors, its up to you and what your photo looks like. I chose oneof the very lightest greens from my foliage background.

Click on the Create a New Layer button on the bottom right part of the Layers Window(or CTRL-SHIFT-N/CMD-SHIFT-N). Name it Bokeh. On that layer, youll add the bokeh effect.

You can either use one of the pre-made, scattered brushes or use one of the paintingbrushes and click on the canvas in the places where youd like the bokeh to show up. Eachbrush will have a different effect, so find the one you like the most. In this example, Ive

used two of the scattered brushes, one round and one polygon shaped. Note: Bokeh willusually correspond to the most lighted areas of your background.

I would suggest turning the opacity of that Bokeh layer down (on the top right of the LayersWindow) to perhaps about 40-60%, depending on what bokeh brushes you use. Or, you canleave it how it is if you want the bokeh to be really obvious. Its totally up to you.

Thats it! Play around with the brushes and the colors, and enjoy! Let me know in thecomments below if you have any problems..


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14. You should only be following these next steps if your photograph has the subjectcompletely surrounded by background. You should have followed steps 1-11 above, thenskipped down to here.

Were going to blur the background differently in this version, because part of thebackground is actually our foreground! So, heres how to do that.

Click on the Background2 layer. Choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur from the top menu. Theradius is up to you, and will depend on the size of your photo. Play around with the slideruntil you get it to be looking fairly blobby and indistinct, but not all completely mushedtogether. Something like this:

15. You can see why we need to modify this, because that just looks odd. So, add anotherlayer mask, this time to the Background2 layer by clicking on the Add Layer Mask buttonon the bottom of the layers window.

Select the Gradient Tool by right clicking on the Paint Bucket Tool (which we used earlier)and choose the Gradient Tool from the 2 choices. Just below the top menu, you should seethe various settings for the Gradient Tool.

Click on the small arrow just to the right of the larger gradient thumbnail (its highlightedin red in my photo above). It will open up a window of various gradient colors and styles.(Note: Before doing this next step, if youve created any custom gradients and have themcurrently loaded in your gradient palette but havent saved them, make sure you savethem first!) Click on the small arrow on the right side of that window, and then chooseReset Gradients. Itll ask if youre sure, and choose OK.


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16. Third from the left on the top row should be a black to white gradient. Select it byclicking on it.

Click on the mask part of the Background2 layer to make it active. Starting right around thefeet of your subject(s), click on the canvas and drag upwards. Let go about 3/4 of the wayup the photo. If you dont get it right the first time, play around with it where you makeyour gradient will vary greatly from photo to photo. You can just keep redoing it until it

looks right.

You see what youre doing here? Youre making the background slowly blur out as it getsfurther away. The foreground should be in focus, along with our subjects. The backgroundshould be blurry. Now, with mine, I thought that the blurry part was a bit too transparent,showing some of the background behind it, in focus. So, what I did was I right clicked onthat Background2 layer and chose Duplicate Layer to thicken it up a bit. Mine now lookslike this:

17. Now load up the Bokeh Brushes. Use the Eyedropper Tool (I or right click on theColor Sampler or Ruler Tools and choose Eyedropper from the 3 choices) to pick up one ofthe very lightest colors from your background. Any color of your choosing. You may evenwant to do a few different colors, its up to you and what your photo looks like. I chose oneof the very lightest greens from my foliage background, a light blue from the sky, and alighter straw color for the field.

Click on the Create a New Layer button on the bottom right part of the Layers Window(or CTRL-SHIFT-N/CMD-SHIFT-N). Name it Bokeh. On that layer, youll add the bokeh effect.

You can either use one of the pre-made, scattered brushes or use one of the paintingbrushes and click on the canvas in the places where youd like the bokeh to show up. Eachbrush will have a different effect, so find the one you like the most. In this example, Iveused two of the scattered brushes, one round and one polygon shaped. Note: Bokeh willusually correspond to the most lighted areas of your background.

I would suggest turning the opacity of that Bokeh layer down (on the top right of the Layers


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Window) to perhaps about 40-60%, depending on what bokeh brushes you use. Or, you canleave it how it is if you want the bokeh to be really obvious. Its totally up to you. Hereshow mine looks:

Note: If the subject of your photo is more toward the background, then you may want toblur out the foreground of the background, leave the middle sharp, and then blur out thevery back of the background. In other words, it should be sharp around the feet or bottomof your subject, then a bit blurry in front of that and blurry in back of it. Ill show you whatI mean.

Click on the mask part of the Background2 layer to select it. Look up at the gradientthumbnail on the top bar, just under the main menu. The same one that we clicked thelittle arrow next to last time. This time, click ON the gradient part. It should open up awindow that looks like this:


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Yours should still go from black to white. You want to make it look like the photo above.

Click on the small box on the bottom left of the gradient bar, then click on the box just tothe right of Color: and make it white. Do the same thing with the box on the lower rightof the gradient click on it, then click on the Color box and make it white. Then click justunder the gradient somewhere in the middle. It will make another box there. Click on thatbox, then click on the Color, and make that one black. Your gradient should now look likemine.

Make your gradient the same way that you did before, except instead of clicking at thefeet/bottom of the subject and dragging upwards, click near the very bottom of the photo(or below it, even, if you zoom out and make the canvas window bigger than your photo this is how I did it) and drag upward until youre a bit above the feet/bottom of your

subject and then let go.


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See how mine looks now? Its sharp around the feet of my subjects, a little blurry in theforeground of that, and gets very blurry toward the back. This photo didnt need it, really,but some photos will. If the subjects had been standing more toward the back of that field,they would most definitely have needed this step. Play around with the gradient and seewhat looks best.


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Thats it! Let me know in the comments below if you have any problems. Heres somebefore and after photos, side by side:

Tutorial is ObsidianDawn.com

faux bokeh tutorial

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